Journal lubricator



Sept. 1, 1959 .1. T. HAGY 2,902,324

JOURNAL LUBRICATOR Filed Jan. 16, 1957 mmra m mm

(Jo/7A) T H767 BY United States Patent JOURNAL LUBRICATOR John T. Hagy, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Application January 16, 1957, Serial No. 634,512

3 Claims. (Cl. 308243) This invention relates to journal lubrication, and more particularly to a device for lubricating the journal boxes of railway rolling stock and other similar journals.

The provision of an eflective and economical means for lubricating the journals of railway cars has been an important and long-standing problem in the railway industry, since inadequacy of such lubrication is a limiting factor on the practical speeds and length of non-stop hauls. Numerous expedients have been tried but heretofore each system of lubrication has had certain inherent defects. Railway journals have been lubricated by packing masses of wool or cotton waste saturated with oil into the journal box so that the lubricant would be supplied to the journal and bearing surfaces by capillary action but waste packings are subject to numerous defects and objections as described in my prior Patent No. 2,713,524.

As a result of the above described disadvantages, the hitherto used waste packings require replacement and repacking of the journal box every eighteen months. Now the regular maintenance schedule of the railway industry provides for a complete overhaul of railway cars every three years. The fact that the waste and yarn packed journal boxes require repacking every eighteen months has caused expense and inconvenience necessary to remove these railway cars from operation and supply the skilled labor necessary to repack every eighteen months. The railway industry has been earnestly seeking a journal lubricator that would require replacement only every three years, whereby the replacement of the journal lubricator could be accomplished during the regular three-year overhaul.

Various other types of lubricator have been used to replace waste packing and some of these lubricators have been quite successful. For example, the lubricator shown in my Patent No. 2,713,524 has gone into wide commercial use and has been successful in reducing hot boxes for three year periods.

However, prior lubricating systems such as waste; pads such as shown in Patents 2,138,971, 2,291,483, 2,571,235 and even my own Patent No. 2,713,524; and mechanical devices such as shown in Patents Nos. 2,640,739, 2,568,854, 2,565,476, 2,559,041, 2,477,177 and others, all involve pressing a capillary or wicking surface tightly against the surface of the journal. Substantial pressure has been essential to insure continuous lubricating contact despite the tendency of the lubricator to be compacted or shifted due to movement of the journal in the box.

This pressure between the lubricator and the journal necessarily introduces a defect or objection which has heretofore been regarded as unavoidable. The pressure between the lubricator and the journal necessarily results in substantial friction between the two and that friction necessarily results in heat. Thus, prior art lubricators have themselves inherently added to the heat in the journal box and have therefore necessarily increased the danger of hot boxes. As friction between the lubricator and journal increase, the temperature in the box increases,

2,902,324 7 Patented Sept. 1, 1959 lubrication becomes less dependable and the danger of hot boxes is increased.

I have found that a lubricator can be provided which has capillary or wicking properties to obtain satisfactory lubrication, which has the long life and stability of the best pads and mechanical devices but which has minimal frictional engagement with the journal so that it operates at a substantially lower temperature and one of the. objects of the present invention is to provide such a lubricator.

Another object of the invention is to provide a lubricator pad having a porous body and resilient wick members extending from the body to provide capillary paths for moving lubricant from the porous body to the rotating journal.

Another object is to provide a journal lubricator having an absorbent body and spaced, resilient wicking members extending upward therefrom into engagement with the journal.

Another object is to provide a journal lubricator having an absorbent body, spaced resilient wicking members extending upward from the top surface of the body, and wicking members on the bottom surface of the body connected to the resilient wicking members.

Another object is to provide a resilient wicking member for a journal lubricator comprising a strong resilient core with a braided cover of wicking material.

These and other objects and advantages reside in novel features of construction, arrangement and combination of parts and materials as will hereinafter be more fully set forth and pointed out in the appended claims.

Figure l is a longitudinal vertical section through a journal box having a lubricator pad constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is a transverse vertical section taken through the journal box shown in Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional view taken through the lubricator pad of the invention.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 indicates a standard journal box in which a journal 12, having a collar 13 and a fillet 14, rotates in contact with a journal bearing 15 which is held in place by the wedge 16 in a well-known manner. Between the lower surface of the journal 12 and the bottom of the journal box 10 is located the lubricating pad of the present invention, and this is indicated generally at 17. The body of the lubricator pad 18 may be formed of a bottom layer 20 of a stiff, strong absorbent material such as stiff high grade felt to give rigidity and also serve as a reservoir for lubricant. The entire body need not be made of such expensive material as high grade felt and the upper layer 22 may be of softer, more porous felt or other suitable material. Resilient wick members 24 extend through the pad body 18 and upwardly from the upper face of felt layer 22 to form loops 26 extending resiliently upward into contact with the lower surface of ournal 12. Each loop 26 preferably has its legs 28 and 30 entering the lubricator pad body through spaced points on the upper surface of felt 22. This construction gives lncreased resiliency to the loops 26, providing improved sustained contact of the loops 26 with the lower surface of journal 12, since these loops with spaced legs possess superior resilient recovery after the deformation caused by the relative movement of the journal which occurs during the stops, starts and motion of the railway car.

Wick members 24 are extended through pad body 18 by known stitching or tufting methods which form lower loops 32 in the wick members 24 at the lower face of felt 20. Through these lower loops 32, binder yarns 34 are passed to anchor the wick members securely in the body 18. The binder yarns extend in loops beneath the felt 20 forming a lubricant-soaking mass and to prevent 3 splashing of the oil in the box. The binder yarns 34 serve the dual functions of anchoring the wick members in the lubricator pad body 18 and, lying in a pool of lubricant at the bottom of journal box 10, supplying lubricant to the wick members 24 by direct capillary action.

Each wick member 24 is a composite including a flexible, resilient core 36 and a covering .of wicking material 38 thereon. One especially efficient and satisfactory resilient core consists of metal cable wherein seven ends of stainless steel wire, each end being 0.0036 inch in diameter, are twisted to form a strand, and seven such strands twisted to form acable. The core 36 may also be formed of other metals or of elastomers such as neoprene, Hycar, or silicone'rubbers.

The wicking material covering 38 is formed of textile material such as yarn. Various yarns may be used including cotton, wool and synthetic yarns but for maximum wearing qualities, I prefer a yarn composed of 50% nylon and 50% wool. The yarn is loosely braided on the core 36.

Felt layer 20 extends around the bottom of journal box and contacts the ribs of the box at each side. Two pieces of textile cloth 40 and 42 such as duck, canvas or the like are stitched around the edges thereof. A handle 44 of similar cloth is stitched to the end of felt to provide for removal of the lubricator pad from the journal box.

As seen in Figure 1, the loops 26 resiliently stand into contact with the bearing surface of the journal 12 in back of the collar 13 where nicks and scratches are frequently present. Thus the whole length of the journal and the back surface of the collar are lubricated while tearing and damage to the loops of the wick members is avoided. Further, the loops 26 bow outwardly into the angles formed where the collar 13 and fillet 14 join the bearing surface of the journal 12, providing superior lubrication at these points.

In a lubricator pad according to the invention, a desirable spacing between legs 28 and of a loop 26 is /s of an inch. While the number of rows of loops and number of loops per row may be varied to suit the .needs of the particular journal box, a satisfactory lubricator pad may contain ten rows with twelve stitches per row, yielding eleven loops per row.

Thus the invention provides a lubricator pad for railway journals satisfying a long standing need of the art, and which gives satisfactory lubrication with minimum friction and heat, a lubricator pad which requires replacement no more frequently than every three years. Replacement can be accomplished simultaneously with the regular three-year overhaul of the railway car.

The superior thermal properties of the lubricator pad of the invention is illustrated by the following comparative data, illustrating the extent of heating in railway car journal boxes due to packing friction alone. On a test stand where the only friction against the journal was packing friction, after eight hours of continuous operation at an average speed of 41 miles per hour and with an ambient temperature of 70 F. the following temperatures were found:

Temperature at End of Period, F.

Journal Packing waste Park 165 Packing Unit of Hagy Patent No. 2,713,524 145 Lubricator Pad of the present invention 91 superior thermal characteristics are probably due to several causes. The portions of the wicking members which engage the journal are held in engagement only by the resilience of the cores and when the journal shifts, the wicking members are free to move without substantial increase in pressure between the journal and lubricator. Further, because of the open construction of the loops of wicking material, there is ample room for the free circulation of air through the lubricator.

The open construction of the loops has the further advantage that dirt and other foreign matter drop to the surface of the body member 18 so that it is not held in engagement with the surface of the journal. This reduces wear on the journal surface and prevents scoring of the journal by abrasive foreign matter.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by United States Letters Patent is:

l. A lubricator pad comprising a felt body and a plurality of resilient composite wick members extending through said felt body, said felt body being flexible and having sufficient mass to constitute the sole support for said wick members, each said composite wick member including a core and a covering of textile yarn braided on said core, said core being formed of a material selected from the group consisting of cabled steel wire and elastomers, said composite wick members forming loops resiliently standing away from the one adjacent face of said felt body, each said loop having legs entering said felt body at spaced points on said one face of said felt body.

2. A lubricator pad according to claim 1 wherein said felt body extends substantially beyond said Wick members along two edges thereof for abutment with the ribs of a journal box.

3. A lubricator pad comprising a felt body and a plurality of resilient composite wick members extending through said felt body, each said composite wick member including a core and a covering of textile yarn braided on said core, said core being formed of a material selected from the group consisting of cabled steel wire and elastomers, said composite wick members forming loops resiliently standing away from the one adjacent face of said felt body, each said loop having legs entering said felt body at spaced points on said one face of said felt body, said covering being formed of yarn containing a mixture of wool and nylon, said felt body being formed of a lower layer of stiff felt and an upper layer of more porous felt, said legs extending through said felt body and forming lower loops adjacent the other face of said felt body and including binder yarns extending through said lower loops, said binder yarns being formed into a mass of loops adjacent said other face of said felt body.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 988,618 Bingham Apr. 4, 1911 2,694,606 Etzkorn Nov. 16, 1954 2,713,524 Hagy July 19, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 561,091 Germany Oct. 10, 1932 93,540 Sweden Dec. 2, 1938 

